This invention relates generally to tape winders, and more particularly to such winders adopted to rapidly wind dumped computer tape containing coded information into relatively tight rolls that can be fed directly to phototypesetting machines in newspaper printing plants.
Daily newspapers, and especially large metropolitan dailies, have become increasingly automated over the years. This automation involves the increasing use of computers in the processing of copy for the papers. It is now common practice in many newspaper plants to feed accumulated quantities of information to computer memory banks as one step in the processing of the information for publication. Typical of the kind of information thus committed to computers is that making up newspaper classified sections. When the time comes to retrieve this information from a computer, the normal procedure is to have the computer "dump" it loosely on the floor in the form of coder paper tape. This tape is then fed to a phototypesetting (commonly called a photocomp) machine that converts it into a photographic negative of the copy in uncoded form. This negative is then put through a processor whereby a positive picture of the copy is obtained for use in the next step of the printing process.
A computer of the above-indicated type dumps its tape fairly rapidly, in the order of 1,000 to 1,500 feet in from 15 to 20 minutes. The dumped tape piles loosely on the floor and there has theretofore been no available means for automatically processing such a large quantity of tape without interruption to prepare it for feeding to a photocomp machine. Consequently, it has been necessary to have an operator stop the computer after it has dumped from about 150 to 300 feet of the tape and feed that much of the tape by hand to a low capacity winder, after which the wound tape is fed to the photocomp machine. The operator repeats this procedure until all of the tape from the computer, normally a thousand feet or more, is fed into the photocomp machine. This is a slow, tedious process, and one which requires the constant presence of an operator to see that the tape from the computer is properly fed to the low capacity winder to prevent snarling of the tape, slippage of the tape from the winder reel or the occurrence of some other mishap. Because the operator must feed the tape from the computer to the winder by hand, the winding speed is, of necessity, slow, since otherwise the tape would load too fast for good control and the operator would run the risk of having his fingers cut by the fast moving edges of the tape. This prior art winder has a vertically mounted reel from which the tape has a tendency to slip and which accounts, at least in part, for its low tape holding capacity and the necessity of having an operator in constant attendance during operation thereof. It takes an experienced operator about half an hour to wind 1,200 feet or so of dumped tape by the above-described (conventional) method, and this accounts only for the actual winding time, to the exclusion of the time lost as a result of the requisite division of the tape into relatively short increments during the tape processing procedure.
From the foregoing it will be apparent that the conventional prior art method of feeding dumped tape from computers to the readers of photocomp machines is slow and tedious. Furthermore, that method is expensive in that it requires the constant presence of an operator to perform a routine task requiring no special skill or experience. It will therefore be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the provision of some means of handling dumped computer tape to speed up the feeding of the tape to a photocomp machine and eliminate the necessity of having an operator continually "babysit" the operation would constitute an improvement in newspaper printing technology of substantial commerical merit.